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The Filing Cabinet

"The Filing Cabinet," which covers compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as well as other regulatory action from the Securities and Exchange Commission, executive compensation, and shareholder activism, is written by CW staff writer Joe Mont. Mont welcomes questions, comments, and statements from readers on SEC filing matters and will address them here when appropriate. Readers can contact him at joe.mont@complianceweek.com.

Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has written an open letter to CFPB employees urging them to be proud of their work and use a whistleblower hotline to report anything undermining those efforts.

Critics are taking their shots against the CFPB for attempting to scale back its rules covering payday lenders. Lawmakers are also questioning the Bureau’s retreat from negotiating enforcement settlements that fail to include monetary restitution for customers.

The CFPB’s student loan ombudsman may have quit, but he is not going quietly. “After 10 months under your leadership, it has become clear that consumers no longer have a strong, independent consumer bureau on their side,” Seth Frotman told his former boss, Acting Director Mick Mulvaney.

In the pages of the CFPB’s semi-annual report, Acting Director Mick Mulvaney included four recommendations for legislative changes to the agency. “The Bureau is far too powerful, with precious little oversight of its activities,” he said.

With a party-line vote, Republicans in the House of Representatives have rallied with a vote to repeal the CFPB's recent ban on mandatory arbitration agreements. The repeal effort now moves onto the Senate for a vote.

State banking associations have joined the fight against the CFPB’s new rule that curtails the use of mandated arbitration. They are turning to Senators to kill the rule with the Congressional Review Act.

A likely effort to help President Donald Trump find a “for cause” reason to fire CFPB Director Richard Cordray, a report by the House Financial Services Committee makes the case for pursuing contempt charges.

Democrats and Republicans alike are pushing legislation that could greatly affect regulators and regulations. Among the efforts is a Republican-led effort to kill the SEC’s extractive payments rule, writesJoe Mont.

The House of Representatives, with a 401-2 vote, has approved legislation that requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to comply with Federal Advisory Committee Act transparency requirements. The Federal Reserve, CIA, and CFPB are among the agencies not covered by the law. More inside.